Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France
Robert DARNTON
History
Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France
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Early in 1788, Franz Anton Mesmer, a Viennese physician, arrived in Paris and began to promulgate a somewhat exotic theory of healing that almost immediately seized the imagination of the general populace. Robert Darnton, in his lively study of mesmerism and its relation to eighteenth-century radical political thought and popular scientific notions, provides a useful contribution to the study of popular culture and the manner in which ideas are diffused down through various social levels.



Paperback available from Harvard University Press.

Language
English
ISBN
0-674-56951-2
CONTENTS
1. Mesmerism and Popular Science
2. The Mesmerist Movement
3. The Radical Strain in Mesmerism
4. Mesmerism as a Radical Political Theory
5. From Mesmer to Hugo
6. Conclusion
Bibliographical Note
Appendix 1. Mesmer’s Propositions
Appendix 2. The Milieu of Amateur Scientists in Paris
Appendix 3. The Société de l’Harmonie Universelle
Appendix 4. Bergasse’s Lectures on Mesmerism
Appendix 5. The Emblem and Textbook of the Sociétés de l’Harmonie
Appendix 6. An Antimesmerist View
Appendix 7. French Passages Translated in the Text
Index
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